San Quentin Residents express how mentorship builds community through, empathy, and compassion while finding healing from a life of traumatic experiences.
Inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center there are many opportunities for mentorship and facilitators in groups such as Offender Mentor Certified Program, Youth Offender Program, Peer Literacy Mentor Program, and Integrated Substance Use Disorder Treatment Program.
“You can only keep what you have by giving it away,” said SQ resident Clay Adelman, a mentor and facilitator for the P.L.M.P and Awareness Into Domestic Abuse.
Adelman said that getting over his past traumas has required a lot of internal work. He said mentoring others is the next step of internal change, the chance to connect with people.
Incarcerated individuals have a chance to learn, become certified and impart the knowledge on other members of the incarcerated community.
Antonio Silva a facilitator for the Spanish community and a YOP mentor said that by hearing someone’s story he believes the key to becoming an effective facilitator is vulnerability.
“Many of the residents here wake up day-to-day with the desire to build their community through mentorship and facilitation,” said Silva. “It’s giving back to those in need showing empathy and compassion towards them while seeking understanding.”
“This is something I’ve never shared with any one. There was this guy a police officer at the junior high school I attended. Officer Manuel Ortega who was a part of the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums in Los Angeles Calif. Known as C.R.A.S.H. He started to mentor me and for the first time in my life I experienced love. In that moment I felt great about myself,” said Silva.
Peer mentor Rodney “Pitt” Baylis is currently serving 71 years-to-life sentence he said mentoring has affected his life because he used to be selfish but now it’s about being selfless. He said he doesn’t want the younger generation to make the same mistakes I did.
“If I could teach a person how to [hurt someone]. Then I can teach someone how to read. That’s why I’m sitting here today because education is the foundation of rehabilitation,” said Baylis.
Baylis said as a teen he turned to the streets after problems in the home despite having the opportunity to work for his step father or enlisting in the military. He said he received scholarship for football but didn’t have a mentor and was kicked out of the house.
“Knowing my influence helped others gain success and build relationships with their families I can see how mentorship affected people in a good way,” Baylis said.
